GEOL 1401 Final Exam Study Guide Flashcards

The Ocean Floor

• Continental Margins and Ocean Basin Floor:

  • Continental Shelf

  • Continental Slope

  • Continental Rise

  • Abyssal Plain

  • Deep Sea Trenches

• Guyot vs. Volcanic Seamount: Understand the difference and be able to recognize diagrams of each.

• Seafloor Sediments: Know the characteristics of the different types.

• Fossil Fuels:

  • Three primary types: coal, oil, and natural gas.

  • Formation: Understand what causes each to form.

  • Nonrenewable: Understand why they are considered nonrenewable.

• Extraction and Environmental Concerns:

  • Know how each type of fossil fuel is extracted from the crust.

  • Understand the environmental concerns each type poses.

• Coal Variations:

  • Types: lignite, sub-bituminous, bituminous, and anthracite.

  • Pollution: Distinguish which type creates the most pollution.

  • Volume: Know which type is the most and least voluminous in the United States.

  • Air Pollution Reduction: Know the steps industries incorporate to reduce air pollution.

• Oil Variations: Know the variations of oil (gasoline, kerosene, diesel, etc.).

• Natural Gas: Know how it is created and its relation to methane.

Tides, Shorelines, Coral Reefs, and Ocean Currents

• Tides: Know the various types and how they are impacted.

• Seawater Salinity:

  • Average salinity.

  • Salinity characteristics in polar, equatorial, and mid-latitude regions.

• Waves: Know the basic parts of a wave.

• Ocean Currents:

  • Different types of ocean currents.

  • Correlation to ocean gyres.

• Tidal Patterns: Know the different types of tides and the various tidal patterns.

• Depositional Shoreline Features: Know these features.

• Coral Reefs:

  • Characteristics of different types of coral reefs.

  • Coral reef zones.

• Ocean Currents, Weather, and Climate: Understand the relationship.

Atmosphere; Air Masses and Atmospheric Characteristics

• Atmosphere Composition and Structure: Know about it.

• Atmospheric Layers: Recognize the various layers.

• Seasons: Understand how and why the seasons change.

• Humidity: Know what it is, how it is measured, and its impact on air masses.

• Air Lifting Processes: Know the various processes that lift air.

• Air Mass Stability: Understand the characteristics of stable versus unstable air masses.

• Frontal Systems:

  • Identify various types on a diagram: cold front, warm front, stationary front, occluded front.

• Precipitation, Condensation, Clouds, and Fog: Differentiate between the various types.

• Adiabatic Heating Rates: Understand the difference between dry and wet adiabatic heating rates of air masses.

Air Pressure and Wind

• Air Pressure Measurement: Understand how air pressure is measured and how pressure relates to wind.

• Measurement Equipment: Know how scientists measure wind direction, wind speed, relative humidity and be able to correlate the specific type of equipment used to measure them.

• Cyclones vs. Anticyclones:

  • Weather associated with each type.

  • Direction of wind for each type.

• Isobars: Know what isobars are used to measure.

• Atmospheric Circulation: Understand what causes general atmospheric circulation and what the idealized global circulation of air movement should be (such as subtropical high pressure zone, subpolar low pressure zone, polar high pressure zone).

• Global Circulation Location: Be able to recognize the location of idealized global circulation on a diagram for each latitude belt and the direction of wind for each latitude.

• Monsoons:

  • Definition: Know what a monsoon is.

  • Location: Where it occurs.

  • Air Flow: Direction of air flow (onto or off land).

  • Seasonal Differences: Be able to distinguish how winter months differ from monsoon season.

• Rossby Waves: Understand what Rossby Waves are and how they form.

• Mountain vs. Valley Breeze: Know how a mountain breeze forms and how it differs from a valley breeze.

• Ocean Currents and Winds: Understand how ocean currents are linked to winds.

• El Nino and La Nina:

  • Origin: Understand the differences in terms of where these events originate.

  • Weather: What type of weather they produce and where.

• Global Rainfall Distribution: Understand how the global distribution of rainfall occurs and why there are differing amounts of precipitation for large landmasses, mountain barriers.

Weather Disasters and Weather Forecasting

• Thunderstorm Development:

  • Stages: Understand the stages of thunderstorm development from Cumulus stage to when it dissolves and the type of precipitation that occurs at each of the three stages. Be able to recognize diagrams and/or photos of each stage of thunderstorm.

• Tornadoes:

  • Definition: Know what a tornado is.

  • Formation: How it forms.

  • Low Pressure: How low pressure impacts its wind speed.

  • Vortex: What a vortex is.

  • Season: What time of year they most commonly occur during thunderstorms.

  • Mesocyclones: How they relate to mesocyclones.

• Tornado Forecasting:

  • Process: Understand how tornadoes forecasting occurs.

  • Doppler Radar: Why Doppler radar is important to tracking them.

  • Fujita Intensity Scale (FIS): Recognize the scale of damage/miles per hour.

• Hurricanes:

  • Formation: Know where hurricanes typically form in terms of latitude.

  • Regional Names: What these storms are called in the western Pacific versus the Indian Ocean or Australia.

• Hurricane Profile:

  • Eyewall vs. Bands: Know what the profile of a hurricane looks like in terms of where the eyewall is versus the bands.

  • Wind Speed and Rainfall: Where the highest wind speeds and heaviest rainfall occur.

• Hurricane Season: Know what months are the most common for hurricanes to form and why their intensity increases due to latent heat of condensation.

• Saffir-Simpson Scale: Know the Saffir-Simpson Scale levels for a hurricane and know the differences in wind speeds for a Tropic Depression, Tropical Storm, and Hurricane.

• Hurricane Names: Know how hurricanes names are chosen.

• Historical Significance: For specific weather events covered in the lecture, know their historical significance (like Hurricane Camille).

Climate Change

Specific Climate Change terminology

• Key terms & concepts: atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, carbon cycle, and cryosphere.

• Atmosphere:

  • What is global warming and how does the greenhouse effect work?

  • What are the specific layers of the atmosphere?

  • What and where are the specific global wind pattern belts?

  • What is a climate driver?

  • What is radiative forcing?

  • What is ozone and how does it form?

  • What do aerosols cause in terms of global warming?

  • What are climate feedbacks?

  • What role does the ocean play in controlling our climate?

  • How does population impact our hydrosphere and impact the carbon cycle?

  • What is the difference between long-term and short-term cycles?

  • Why are the polar-regions so sensitive to climate change?

PETM

• What is the PETM and what does it represent in terms of global climate change?

• What levels of carbon existed in the PETM atmosphere and how does that differ from today?

Chasing Ice and Rising Seas

• Understand the evidence of climate change documented in the Chasing Ice video and how that relates to the climate change dilemma we have learned about this semester.

• In the Rising Seas video, what evidence is on land (such as specific rock formations) that prove ocean levels have risen and fallen over geologic time.

• At what point (degrees Celsius), should a tipping point occur and how does that impact rising seas across the globe?

Sustainability and Conservation

Sustainability and Recycling:

• What are the three Environmental Rs?

• Be able to identify best practices to implement the three Rs into your life.

• What are the new Rs?

• Recognize the major types of plastic and their corresponding numbers.

• Understand the purpose of sustainability and how it links to conservation.

• Know what “Leave No Trace” is and recognize the various types of LNT principles.

Earth Science in Action Videos Hot Springs Mammoth Site & Museum Virtual Field Trip

• How were the mammoths at Hot Springs Mammoth Site different from the ones at the Waco Mammoth National Monument?

• Why are there so many different types of fossils captured at this site and why did the animals get preserved there?

The Dinosaur Extinction layer

• Be able to identify what rare element exists in the “white-gray” colored layer and why this is so rare to be found on Earth in this concentration.

• What types of fossils exist below the K-Pg layer but not above it and why?

Colorado Coal Seam

• When were these coal seams deposited?

• What does the presence of a coal seam tell a geologist about specific ancient depositional environment that existed when this coal was formed?

Geologically Significant Site for Glacial Striations

• What caused these scratches to form near Acadia National Park in Maine?

• When did these scratches get formed?

• What do these scratches tell geologists about the conditions present when they were formed?

Impact of Snowpack Reduction

• What is happening to the annual snowpack in Colorado?

• Why is the snowpack important to climate conditions?

• How does a change in snowpack impact humans, wildlife, and water resources?

• Continental Margins and Ocean Basin Floor: - Continental Shelf: The submerged portion of the continent, where the sea is shallow and supports a variety of marine life due to its nutrient-rich environment. - Continental Slope: This area slopes down from the continental shelf to the deep ocean floor and is characterized by significant sediment deposition and underwater landslides. - Continental Rise: Located at the base of the continental slope, it is formed by thick layers of sediment that accumulate over time, playing a crucial role in oceanic sediment transportation. - Abyssal Plain: These are the flat, deep parts of the ocean floor, characterized by their vast, flat expanses covered in silt and clay, which support unique ecosystems. - Deep Sea Trenches: These are the deepest parts of the ocean floor, formed at subduction zones where one tectonic plate moves under another, resulting in extreme pressure and unique biological environments.

• Guyot vs. Volcanic Seamount: A guyot is a flat-topped underwater volcano formed by erosion, while a volcanic seamount is a typically conical, submerged volcano that has not eroded significantly. It's important to recognize diagrams showing these geological features as they illustrate the different processes that shape the ocean floor.

• Seafloor Sediments: These sediments vary in composition, including terrigenous (land-derived), biogenous (biological material), and hydrogenous (precipitation from seawater). Understanding their characteristics is essential for studying marine geology and marine ecology.

• Fossil Fuels: - Three Primary Types: Coal, oil, and natural gas are the three main fossil fuels, each formed through different geological processes involving ancient organic matter. - Formation: Coal forms from the remains of vegetation subjected to heat and pressure over millions of years in swampy areas. Oil and natural gas originate from marine microorganisms that were buried and subjected to heat and pressure beneath oceanic sediments. - Nonrenewable: These resources are considered nonrenewable because their formation takes millions of years, and current consumption rates far exceed natural resource replenishment times.

• Extraction and Environmental Concerns: Understand how each type of fossil fuel is extracted from the Earth's crust. Coal is mined either through surface mining or underground mining. Oil is extracted via drilling, while natural gas often comes from fracking. Each extraction method poses significant environmental concerns, including habitat destruction, air and water pollution, and contributions to climate change.

• Coal Variations: - Types: Major types include lignite (brown coal), sub-bituminous, bituminous, and anthracite (hard coal). Each type has varying levels of carbon content, energy output, and pollution potential. - Pollution: Bituminous coal creates the most pollution upon combustion compared to other types. - Volume: Lignite is the most voluminous in the U.S., while anthracite is the least due to its more limited availability. - Air Pollution Reduction: Industries implement various technologies, such as scrubbers and electrostatic precipitators, to reduce pollutants released into the atmosphere during coal burning.

• Oil Variations: Variations of oil include gasoline, kerosene, diesel, and jet fuel, each with specific applications and refining processes that make them suitable for different purposes. It's important to understand their properties and uses in the modern economy.

• Natural Gas: Natural gas is primarily composed of methane. It forms through similar processes as oil and is often found in association with oil deposits. It is regarded as a cleaner fossil fuel option due to lower carbon emissions when burned compared to coal or oil.